Rockall Design Enters 10th Year
Rockall Design was 9 years old yesterday. It's become customary on this day that I post a chart of growth (income vs years running).
So, here it is:
As you can see this last year has been something of a bumper year.
The secret to this past year's success? Long hours and "hard" work.
But mainly luck!
Well, I say luck, but again, as with 99.5% of my work, it's down to being the owner of this site and having put in endless hours in to its running. Without the site the luck wouldn't happen. But it's luck in the sense that I've done nothing to promote the business or try and build revenue other than running this site.
Lessons learnt this last year: doubling turnover doesn't necessarily make you twice as well off. Also, while I agree that money can't buy happiness, it can help prevent misery, brought on by the stress of not knowing where the next month's grocery money is going to come from.
Perhaps the reason I don't feel twice as "rich" is that the frugality that came about in Rockall's annus horribilis has stuck with us. We continue to watch what we spend, collect money off coupons, dig out bargains etc. As a bonus we're now debt free and I've even put aside all my tax this year and even saved some money that we hope to use to put towards a Buy To Let property. Times are good right now.
Doing well is a nice feeling. I can't imagine the growth pattern continuing, but even if it just stayed steady I'd be very happy less miserable for sure.
Please don't hate me for talking about being "well off" in the open. It's just what I've come to do each year and it happens this year was a good one. No numbers are mentioned. How well off I am is all relative to what I'm used to and what our outgoings / living costs are. I'm not bragging. Just being open.
Update: I forgot to mention - the vast majority of the work over the past year was Domino-based!
Skip to the 
You can subscribe to an individual
Congratulations!
I've been following your blog through the years, and was a little worried for you during "annus horribilis". Turning it around, and finding inner peace must be so good.
Be proud of what you have made for yourself and your family!
Reply
Congratulations, well deserved! It's always good to see people doing well, it's even better when they have build everything around their success their selves.
Reply
Congratulations Jake. You create your own luck.
Reply
Congrats. You allways did very good work for us. Keep it up :o)
Reply
Is the domino work (new) or development of existing projects/support
Reply
Enhancement and support.
I've not done a "File -> Database -> New" for years and years.
Reply
Nice one Jake, can't believe its been 10 years already and that Domino is still so prevalent in the marketplace.
Best of luck for the next 10!
Reply
Thanks Phil!
I'm never sure if my own circumstances can be taken as a general indicator of the market in general.
Despite the fact my company shows a trend of growing I don't see a long-term future for me as a Domino developer. Been saying that for years though...
Reply
I'm happy for you Jake. I know it's not the PC thing to say these days, but I think you'll be surprised how long Domino will stick around, perhaps maybe even until my retirement days ;-)
Dan
Reply
Funny you should mentioned retirement Dan. I don't know your age, but I'm 37 - somewhere just shy of middle age. Neither young, nor old. But old enough to be seriously thinking about planning for retirement. Hence the buy-to-let purchase I mentioned. I've paid in to a personal pension for years, but it's under-performing and won't be enough to provide for me in retirement. So we're buying a house as an investment. May well revive the house blog at the same time http://jake.typepad.com/
Reply
Show the rest of this thread
Good news, you deserve it.
I still do "File database, New" often, but I work for a company where we do plenty of things in Notes/Domino. However, I echo what Dan says, I think Domino will stick around for a while longer. :-)
Reply
To slightly change a well-known phrase
"The harder you work, the luckier you get"!!
The Domino comment at the end surprised me. Need anyone to help you get less busy? :-)
Reply
The only work I've ever subbed-out is graphic design (know your weaknesses!). Development work I've always done myself and I've been lucky enough that - even in the busiest of time - I've been able to cope single-handedly.
Subcontracting dev work out is something I've purposely tried to avoid. Partly because I don't trust others and don't want to be a manager, but also because I think my customers come to *me* to do the work.
Not subbing work out is the reason the chart I posted above is now at the ceiling of how much a one man company can feasibly earn.
Reply
Bravo! Glad to hear you're doing well.
Have you thought about creating some kind of business around a Domino web site? Something that filled a nietch need for some business?
I did that for one customer but it hasn't panned out so far. Check out http://simplesearchapartments.com
It was perfect for Domino, consisting of a master database plus another database for each geographical area they roll out. We started with two areas, Austin and Houston.
If it ever takes off, which I think is unlikely at this point, the I'd just create a new database for each new area to be rolled out and they populate it with the property photos and info for that city.
At the moment I've got a part time gig that uses a third-party web based product for tracking the workflow. It isn't really very good, in my opinion. I think I can create a new and better web tracking system that will run rings around what they have.
Of course, once created I'd have to do some marketing and find some customers.
Having a product or a service that uses your IT experience but ISN'T about IT might give you a more dependable cash flow stream. At least that's what I'm thinking of for myself.
Peace,
Rob:-]
Reply
I've thought about it, but never found anything that's held my interest long enough to get going properly.
I did have a stab at http://www.grouplets.co.uk/ but kind of gave up on it (for now).
I came to the realisation that the best money to be made is in working on a day rate as an IT developer. The works comes and goes but it's good money. I know the income from a website is a steady and constant trickle but the time it would take to get a site up and running needs factoring in to that.
However, If I did do a website I don't think it would be built in Domino.
Reply
I am in Lotus/Notes Domino for last 11 years. Following your blogs. I was/am also very much uncertain about LN. So as DRP, learned basics of SharePoint/Nintex Workflow :) Worked for a year in SP2010 and back to Notes :) Let see what time decides.. :)
Reply
Hi Jake and congratulations on entering your 10th year with Rockall. I don't think anyone knows what's going to happen in the next 10 years but I think most of us Domino Developers are adding additional strings to our bows, just in case. SharePoint, Podio and Force9 are all things I am looking at - cloud based hosting is certainly where it seems things are going currently in my world.
Saying all the above, I am still, like you spending most of my time with Domino, albeit as a back end - most of my recent apps have been bootstrapped and people love them (and are not aware that it's still 'on Notes')...
Here's to the next 10, hope that curve continues in the right direction for you mate.
Reply
The dead product that refuses to die.
You'll be hacking nsf's 'till you're old and grey.
Reply
"The dead product that refuses to die."
What a great way to put it! Fingers crossed that Domino continues to prevail.
Reply
I took more than five years listening that Domino is dead..
It is truth that several companies moved to other platform but Domino still remains on the surface.
Reply
Congratulations Jake, hard work = results, and the last sentence:
...majority of the work over the past year was Domino-based...
is good news for us Domino developers.
Reply
Hi Jake,
You are right because "today" is: File + Application + New
Joke!
Besides that little detail, "Domino pays the bills", you will be writing posts about the new Domino 9 the next year.
Let me ask you, had you significant projects with Sharepoint?
Because I know that you did invest time about Sharepoint+.NET but, the effort was rewarded?
Reply
Jake, Congratulations on achieving this milestone! It was a pleasant surprise to hear that most of your work has been Domino based.
Best wishes!
Reply